As discussed in greater length in the Background section of commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 6,574,104, filed on Oct. 5, 2001, by Patel et al., which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety, a data center may be defined as a location, e.g., room, that houses computer systems arranged in a number of electronics cabinets called racks. A standard rack may be defined as an Electronics Industry Association (EIA) enclosure, 78 in. (2 meters) wide, 24 in. (0.61 meter) wide and 30 in. (0.76 meter) deep. Standard racks may be configured to house a number of computer systems, e.g., about forty (40) systems, with future configurations of racks being designed to accommodate up to eighty (80) systems. The computer systems typically include a number of components, e.g., one or more of printed circuit boards (PCBs), mass storage devices, power supplies, processors, micro-controllers, semi-conductor devices, and the like, that may dissipate relatively significant amounts of heat during the operation of the respective components.
A relatively large number of devices are utilized in the data center to perform a variety of tasks, such as, sensors for detecting environmental conditions, status indicating apparatuses (lights, buzzers, etc.), and the like. These devices are typically powered by a direct current (DC) power source, such as batteries, or an alternating current (AC) power source. There are certain drawbacks associated with the use of these types of power sources. For instance, batteries typically require relatively frequent replacement which may be difficult and time consuming if large numbers of these devices are utilized. In addition, the use of AC power sources typically requires that a large number of wires be connected between the devices and the power sources. Thus, when the racks or components of a data center are added or re-arranged, the devices must also be moved or recalibrated. The movement and/or recalibration of the devices is oftentimes relatively difficult and requires a great deal of time and manual input since the wires connecting the devices to their power sources must also be moved. Therefore, the use of conventional power sources to operate these devices often results in relatively high operating costs.